A car bomb blast has killed a police officer in the Spanish city of Bilbao.

The bomb exploded in a car park in the Santa Isabel neighbourhood, Basque Country police said. A cloud of black smoke and flames poured from the car shortly after the attack.

“There was an attack, a big explosion, that burnt up the individual inside the car and damaged other vehicles nearby,” the Basque Country regional government’s spokesman Minister Rodolfo Ares said.

Mr Ares identified the victim as police officer Eduardo Puelles. The man’s wife, who was not hurt, was attended to by emergency services after being overcome by emotion.

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There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack but such bombings have regularly been carried out by Basque guerrillas Eta, who have killed more than 800 people in decades of struggle for independence of the Basque Country.